MeanSleevedMachine

Left - May 10, 2018.
Right - April 20, 2019.

Still working on adding muscle but I am happy with my current weight. I have surpassed my goal weight. Now it is all about body composition.

Left - May 10, 2018.
Right - April 20, 2019.

Left was day of surgery (May 10, 2018) and the right was taken on August 2, 2018. Not quite 3 months. A total loss of 93 lbs.

Still working on adding muscle but I am happy with my current weight. I have surpassed my goal weight. Now it is all about body composition.

Left - May 10, 2018.
Right - April 20, 2019.

13. They had 15. Ok, 17. Quit badgering. :)

Still working on adding muscle but I am happy with my current weight. I have surpassed my goal weight. Now it is all about body composition.

I went for my one year follow up on May 9. I was quite proud of this one which is a non-scale victory.

I was 44.7% body fat in May of 2018. At my visit on Thursday they tested my body fat again and I was 17.1% body fat.

I am also off every single medication now.

It is amazing how great this year has been.

Still working on adding muscle but I am happy with my current weight. I have surpassed my goal weight. Now it is all about body composition.

14 months out, I am eating 2650 calories a day which is still 187 calories below my BMR. So I am still losing, just slowing it down because I want to cruise into 250 and stay there.

I am not quite to the one year mark, that will be May 10th of this year. My life has changed so much for the better that I wish I had done this years ago.

First, it is a lot of hard work. I log everything I eat. I light weighs 3-5 times a week religiously. I walk 5-10 miles a day religiously.

That said, I do occasionally eat foods I shouldn’t. I eat cake on my birthday. I eat ice cream once a week with my daughters. I still eat a bun with my hamburger and if I go watch a movie in theaters I will eat popcorn because life is too good to pass up and I want to experience it. I’m not perfect by any means but I’ve worked hard and 90% of the time I do exactly what I should be doing. I’ve dropped a ton of weight. Before I had the surgery I took 11 pills a day for various health issues. Today, I take zero prescribed medications and haven’t for the last three months. The only medicine I take now are Vitamins.< br />
I was super worried before the surgery — it is a massive surgery when you think about someone cutting out large chunks of a vital organ. I had two little kids, a 1 year old and a 3 year old at the time. All I could think of was what if it went wrong and I left them without a dad. That said, at the weight I was at, I was going to eventually eat myself into an early grave and leave them without a father anyway.

I’m glad I took the plunge. I lost the majority of my weight in the first six months. It started to slow down around the 9th month and the last three I’ve lost about 6 lbs a month. I’ve already hit my goal. I’m about 22lbs away from my vanity goal that I never thought I would hit before surgery. I tried to be realistic but I think I might surpass my vanity goal at this rate.

Here are pictures.

14 months out, I am eating 2650 calories a day which is still 187 calories below my BMR. So I am still losing, just slowing it down because I want to cruise into 250 and stay there.

Still working on adding muscle but I am happy with my current weight. I have surpassed my goal weight. Now it is all about body composition.

Still working on adding muscle but I am happy with my current weight. I have surpassed my goal weight. Now it is all about body composition.

Still working on adding muscle but I am happy with my current weight. I have surpassed my goal weight. Now it is all about body composition.

Left - May 10, 2018.
Right - April 20, 2019.

13. They had 15. Ok, 17. Quit badgering. :)

Left - May 10, 2018.
Right - April 20, 2019.

I often feel this way too. I honestly think some of it is we do not see ourselves the way others do. I constantly lament to my wife about my “big belly” after losing over 240 pounds... I stand in disbelief that I still have a belly. A belly that looks huge to me now. She always shoots back “boy, you don’t have a belly anymore.”

I look at my clothes... my new clothes, and think there is no way this will fit me. Then it not only does, it is loose.

I honestly have the hardest time seeing myself as a non-fat person no matter how many people I love and trust that tell me otherwise. Logically and rationally I know I am smaller. You don’t lose as much as I do and not look smaller. So I know people aren’t lying to me.

It’s just... I was fat for so long and I still see myself as fat. So man, I understand where you are coming from. I’m just now getting to where I look at my photos and see real progress.

Unless you were morbidly obese it is really difficult to understand this. I get that. But it just goes to show that being morbidly obese affects more than just your physical health. It really damages you mentally too.

Good luck on your journey and if you need any help on what to eat, how much and any exercise programs just let me know. Since we have similar starting stats I probably have more to share with you than the average person on here since you will no doubt be eating more Protein and calories earlier on than the rest of the folks having the surgery to avoid stalls.

Here is a recent photo at 13.5 months out. All of the working out is starting to pay off. I was telling my wife (who has been telling me this for months now) that I can finally tell how muscular I am getting in photos. It is really amazing considering the blob I had become after a decade of inactivity.

14 months out, I am eating 2650 calories a day which is still 187 calories below my BMR. So I am still losing, just slowing it down because I want to cruise into 250 and stay there.

Ice cream. Without question.

Well to be fair, I lost almost 2 inches in height from the time I was 20. So it is only fair I got it back. :)